# data[].attributes.body
You can click on any of the pictures to be taken to the links discussed in the captions!

# data[].attributes.body
Thank you for checking out this newsletter! I hope you found some games that can work for your classroom. Next month's newsletter will focus on using games as early finishers in the classroom! It will also include some templates that you can use to create your own games!

# data[].attributes.body
This is a fun board game from Underdog Games that allows students to learn about the national parks and conservation while looking at amazing pictures.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Trekking The National Parks: (2nd Edition)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Trekking the National Parks is a spirited family board game that lets players experience the National Parks in a fun and competitive way. Players compete for points by claiming Park Cards and collecting trail stones as they travel across the country experiencing the wonders at each of these magnific…

# data[].attributes.body
Here is a link from We Are Teachers that lists 52 great board games for the classroom!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The best learning takes place while kids are having fun. And what's more fun than old-fashioned board games? Plus they get bonus points as a screen-free way to keep kids engaged! Whether your learners are in preschool or high school, there's something for everyone. Some of the educational board games on our list can be played in a group (think Bingo) while others can be played solo. You'll find classic games, including their junior versions for younger students, as well as plenty of unique games to add to your collection. Check out our recommendations below for the best educational board games for kids of all ages.

Games for Preschoolers

Pancake Pile-Up

Pancake Pile-Up teaches early math skills while also working on balance and coordination. Kids will definitely get a kick out of this relay-style game that involves racing to stack pancakes as displayed on the selected card.

Skills: Counting, Sequencing, Pattern Recognition, Gross Motor Skills

Buy it: Pancake Pile-Up at Amazon

Raccoon Rumpus

This hilarious game teaches kids matching and other valuable skills while they race to dress their raccoons.

Skills: Matching, Colors, Turn Taking

Buy it: Raccoon Rumpus at Amazon

Matching Game: Disney Edition

A classic game but with all of your kids' favorite Disney characters. It would be hard to make a list of the best educational board games without including some version of the Memory game!

Skills: Attention, Concentration, Focus

Buy it: Matching: Disney at Amazon

Boggle Jr.

Unlike traditional Boggle, this game can be played by kids as young as 3 years old. Cards can be played with the word showing or not showing so you can customize it to your students' skill levels.

Skills: Spelling, Vocabulary

Buy it: Boggle Jr. at Amazon

Pete the Cat: I Love My Buttons Board Game

Preschoolers will love this game since it features everyone's favorite book feline, Pete the Cat! They will also like trying their hand at the spinner as they gather buttons to dress Pete.

Skills: Shape and Color Recognition, Gross Motor Skills, Matching

Buy it: Pete the Cat Game at Amazon

Go Fish Alphabet

Players attempt to see how many upper- and lower-case letter pairs they can accumulate in this fun spin on Go Fish. We especially love the cute detail that the upper- and lower-case letters are represented by mother and baby animal pairs!

Skills: Upper- and Lower-Case Letter Recognition, Turn Taking, Critical Thinking, Animal Recognition

Buy it: Go Fish Alphabet at Amazon

Guess Who?

Ask the right questions so you can guess your opponent's character before they guess yours. We especially love that this version comes with the option to play with pets too!

Skills: Deductive Reasoning, Communication

Buy it: Guess Who? at Amazon

Little Astronauts

Blast off into space and have fun while racing around the solar system with friends. We especially love the straightforward instructions and quick game play.

Skills: Turn Taking, Social Skills, Counting

Buy it: Little Astronauts at Amazon

Snug as a Bug in a Rug

We love this game since it hits on a lot of the major concepts taught in preschool including shapes, colors, counting, and cooperation.

Skills: Counting, Color and Shape Recognition

Buy it: Snug as a Bug in a Rug at Amazon

Zingo

This fun spin on bingo is the perfect game for very early readers since it reinforces simple words through pictures and repetition. Kids will surely love manning the machine that makes the Zingo cards pop out.

Skills: Sight Word Recognition, Spelling

Buy it: Zingo at Amazon

Found It

We love a good scavenger hunt, especially one that can be played indoors. Put your little learners' critical thinking skills to the test while they have fun racing around the classroom to find objects that fit the cards.

Skills: Problem Solving, Creativity, Observation Skills

Buy it: Found It at Amazon

Magnetic Fishing Game

Kids will have fun "fishing" for letters with this adorable magnetic game board and fishing poles.

Skills: Hand-Eye Coordination, Letter Recognition

Buy it: Magnetic Fishing Game at Amazon

Candy Land

A staple of nearly everyone's childhood, Candy Land is the perfect introduction to educational board games because the rules are straightforward. We love that it doesn't take too long to play, since young kids often have short attention spans.

Skills: Turn Taking, Counting, Rule Following

Buy it: Candy Land at Amazon

Games for Elementary School Students

Outfoxed

Roll the dice, reveal suspects, find clues, rule out suspects, then find the guilty fox!

Skills: Deductive Reasoning and Logic

Buy it: Outfoxed at Amazon

Monopoly Junior

We are loving all the junior versions of popular board games so that littler kids can enjoy them too. Monopoly Junior uses the same basic concepts as the original while streamlining the instructions and shortening the playing time.

Skills: Counting, Basic Math, Strategy

Buy it: Monopoly Junior at Amazon

What Do You Stand For?

Cards feature a "What If" scenario that gets kids thinking about how to handle difficult situations. Players must collect cards for each of the traits along the way.

Skills: Social and Emotional Intelligence, Character Building

Buy it: What Do You Stand For? at Amazon

Connect 4

Get four of your tokens in a row before your opponent can! We love the strategic thinking that is necessary to succeed in this classic game.

Skills: Logic, Strategy

Buy it: Connect 4 at Amazon

Pictureka

Be the first to find your designated object to win the round. Kids will definitely get a kick out of the whimsical drawings in this game.

Skills: Visual Perception, Focus, Attention to Detail

Buy it: Pictureka at Amazon

Wildcraft

Some educational board games, like this one, teach kids about something they may not otherwise learn. Kids learn about herbal and medicinal plants while competing against friends in this science-based game.

Skills: Strategy, Nature Facts

Buy it: Wildcraft at Amazon

Suspend

Like pickup sticks on steroids, kids will love the challenge of adding rods to this sculpture without touching any other ones.

Skills: Teamwork, Balance, Hand-Eye Coordination

Buy it: Suspend at Amazon

Math Island

Players will need to utilize their math skills so they can escape Math Island in this fun, fast-paced game.

Skills: Conceptual Understanding, Word Problem Solving, Calculations

Buy it: Math Island at Amazon

Balance Board Game

Early elementary-aged students will certainly have fun balancing this scale based on the number card drawn. Additionally, the happy little frogs will make anyone smile!

Skills: Counting, Balance, Coordination

Buy it: Balance Board Game at Amazon

Scrabble Junior

Pre-readers and early readers will definitely benefit from the junior version of Scrabble. We love that it can be customized to your students' abilities since the two-sided game board has an easy side and a more advanced one.

Skills: Organization, Memory Function, Spelling, Decision Making

Buy it: Scrabble Junior at Amazon

Money Bags

This is the perfect game to teach young kids about coin identification while also reinforcing counting and basic math skills.

Skills: Counting, Money Management

Buy it: Money Bags at Amazon

My First Bananagrams

Not all educational board games have to include actual boards. We love how easy it is to travel with Bananagrams since the tiles all fit nicely into the banana-shaped zippered bag. My First Bananagrams is similar to the original but with bright, sturdier tiles and dual-letter tiles. The tiles will come in handy whether you are actively playing the game or just practicing building sight words.

Skills: Word Building, Letter Recognition

Buy it: My First Bananagrams at Amazon

Continent Race

This multi-award-winning game will definitely be a hit with your students. They will learn about various countries, continents, and flags while also having fun. Help your students develop a curiosity about the world around them while they are still young!

Skills: Flag Identification, Country/Continent Recognition

Buy it: Continent Race at Amazon

Gravity Maze

First, players have to use the provided blocks to build a maze based on the selected card. Then, they have to drop the ball into the maze and see if they were successful. There is something for everyone since the cards range from beginner to expert.

Skills: Reasoning, Visual Perception, Spatial Reasoning

Buy it: Gravity Maze at Amazon

Games for Middle School Students

Brain Games Kids

Regardless of your age, everyone can benefit from brain teasers and puzzles. Put your students' problem-solving skills to the test with this fun game based on the hit show Brain Games.

Skills: Logic, Reasoning

Buy it: Brain Games Kids at Amazon

Science Ninjas: Valence

Kids will learn how molecules form and chemicals interact while also having fun. Valence will certainly be a great addition to your science curriculum.

Skills: Molecule Formation, Chemical Reactions

Buy it: Science Ninjas: Valence at Amazon

Clue: Harry Potter Edition

Whether you're a muggle or a wizard, you will love this fun, alternate version of the popular game Clue.

Skills: Deductive Reasoning, Communication

Buy it: Clue: Harry Potter Edition at Amazon

3 Up 3 Down

This fun, fast-paced card game will be sure to keep your students' attention while improving their cognitive abilities. They will definitely ask to play again and again!

Skills: Quick Thinking, Following Directions

Buy it: 3 Up 3 Down at Amazon

Multiplication & Division Bingo

Kids will enjoy honing their math skills while competing against their friends!

Skills: Multiplication, Division

Buy it: Multiplication & Division Bingo at Amazon

Guess in 10

Players have up to 10 questions before they have to guess which state is on the card in question. This is a game of strategy since players can make use of clue cards and bonus questions on their way to winning seven cards.

Skills: Creative Thinking, Problem Solving, Communication

Buy it: Guess in 10 at Amazon

Spy Alley

What's better than spending an hour engulfed in espionage and intrigue? This game has won a Mensa award for good reason since it teaches reasoning, deduction, logic, and other valuable skills!

Skills: Memory, Strategy, Deductive Reasoning

Buy it: Spy Alley at Amazon

Hedbanz

Put on a headband, flip the timer, then start asking yes-no questions to guess who or what is on your headband!

Skills: Descriptive Language, Deductive Reasoning

Buy it: Hedbanz at Amazon

Rapid Rumble

Players must play as many letter cards as they can that fit the selected category before the timer runs out. This game can be played by a range of ages and ability levels since the prompts range from easy to quite difficult.

Skills: Category Recognition, Connecting Specifics to Categories, Creative Thinking

Buy it: Rapid Rumble at Amazon

Bananagrams

While the junior version of the game is perfect for elementary-aged children, we think the regular version is perfect for middle schoolers. Once everyone has been dealt a set number of tiles, students get to work building words.

Skills: Vocabulary Building, Spelling

Buy it: Bananagrams at Amazon

Mastermind

Kids have been playing this game since 1970. Mastermind is a game of strategy in which one player is the codemaker and the other is the codebreaker. A game that enforces math concepts while keeping kids actively engaged is a win in our book!

Skills: Logical Thinking, Math Concepts (Probability, Permutations)

Buy it: Mastermind at Amazon

Trekking the National Parks

This game is so innovative it has won both the Mensa and Parents' Choice Gold Awards. Spark a love of nature and the national parks while kids are still young! Players travel across the map collecting trail stones and earning park cards.

Skills: Map Reading, Historical and Geographical Knowledge

Buy it: Trekking the National Parks at Amazon

National Geographic Rock Bingo

If you know a budding geologist, this is the game for them! Not only does it come with bingo cards and playing cards, it also comes with over 150 rocks and minerals!

Skills: Rock and Mineral Identification

Buy it: Rock Bingo at Amazon

Games for High School Students

Monopoly

People have been playing some version of Monopoly since 1904 and the classic version since the 1930s! Teach the almost-adult in your life all about money management while having a lot of fun in the process.

Skills: Finance, Life Skills, Strategy, Negotiation

Buy it: Monopoly at Amazon

Periodic

Chemistry buffs will learn to identify and understand the periodic table while also having fun with their friends.

Skills: Strategic Planning, Executive Planning

Buy it: Periodic at Amazon

Trekking Through History

Students will love time-traveling through thousands of years of history while earning experience tokens for their itinerary. No friends around to play with? No problem! Play in solo mode against the historian!

Skills: Critical Thinking, Reinforcement of Historical Facts

Buy it: Trekking Through History: A Board Game Adventure Through Time at Amazon

Scrabble

Scrabble is about so much more than just building the biggest word since different letters are worth different points and you can build multiple words in a single turn. Regardless of how attached to their devices the teens in your life are, we still think they will enjoy some hands-on learning with everyone's favorite word game.

Skills: Vocabulary Enrichment, Tactics and Strategy

Buy it: Scrabble at Amazon

Conversation Cubes

These fun dice can be used for any age, but we think they would make great icebreakers for teens. A focus on social and emotional learning has become vital since the beginning of the pandemic.

Skills: Communication, Social and Emotional Intelligence

Buy it: Conversation Cubes at Amazon

The World Game

This game boasts cards representing 194 countries and also a full world map. Teach your high schooler all about geography while having fun at the same time.

Skills: Map Reading, Country and Capital Recognition

Buy it: The World Game at Amazon

Cytosis

This game is best suited to teenagers since the instructions may prove too challenging for younger students. Any science lover will certainly have a ball gathering health points by building enzymes, hormones, and receptors!

Skills: Reading, Strategy, Multiplication

Buy it: Cytosis: A Cell Biology Game at Amazon

Chameleon

This multi-award-winning game will be a big hit with teens as they play detective so they can track down the chameleon. The player with the chameleon card will need to be sneaky and use strategy to blend in and avoid being caught!

Skills: Logic, Deduction

Buy it: Chameleon at Amazon

BrainBolt

We know how difficult it can be to get teens to unplug, but we think Brain Bolt might just do the trick! Teens can play solo or challenge their friends to see who can get the highest score.

Skills: Hand-Eye Coordination, Memory, Sequential Thinking

Buy it: BrainBolt at Amazon

Cranium

Cranium is the gold standard in educational board games since it is based on psychological studies on the nine areas of intelligence. Be the first to complete all four activities in Cranium Central so your team will win!

Skills: Vocabulary, Creativity, Reading

Buy it: Cranium at Amazon

Azul

Players must place tiles on their side while completing secret objectives. We think it is best suited for older students since the time needed to play is on the longer side.

Skills: Logic, Strategy, Pattern Recognition

Buy it: Azul at Amazon

The 50 States Game

Being able to fill out a U.S. map is surprisingly difficult for many students and even adults. We love that this game teaches that skill while also being super fun!

Skills: Flag and Capital Recognition, Geographical Knowledge

Buy it: The 50 States Game at Amazon

If you like these educational board games and are looking for more play-based learning, try these 35 active math games and activities for your little learners.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The best learning takes place while kids are having fun. And what's more fun than old-fashioned board games? Plus they get bonus points as a screen-free way to keep kids engaged! Whether your learners are in preschool or high school, there's something for everyone.

# data[].attributes.body
Jenga (topple blocks) are a great way to review information! You could also create a board and do something similar!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Using Topple Blocks with Task Cards - Teaching with a Mountain View

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Topple Blocks seem to increase student's engagement time and time again. Here is how you can use them alongside task cards.

# data[].attributes.body
Biome Builder is a card game that allows students to discover different biomes and create food chains.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Biome Builder

In Biome Builder, budding ecologists discover diverse creatures across four distinct biomes: Amazon Rainforest, American Prairie, Sahara Desert, and Pacific Ocean. Players create food chains in this fast-paced card game but BEWARE! Action cards can upset the balance of these ecosystems. Race to build the richest food chains and ensure the survival of your biomes!

Biome Builder won the Gold Medal from International Serious Play2018, was selected as the Best Family Game at the 2017 Boston Festival of Independent Games, and received the 2018 Seal of Approval from the National Parenting Center.

Take a look at the Biome Builder: Curricular Alignment for more details on how the game can be tied into a classroom setting.

Testimonials

"Do you want to play a fun game while learning cool science facts? Get Biome Builder & become an ecologist in training building a food chain!" Dr. Aida Verdes, Natural History Museum London

"Super fun game that is perfect in elementary school classroom to reinforce what students are learning." Engaged Family Gaming Podcast

"Our students love that game! Students teach their peers Biome Builder." Science teacher at Barrett Elementary

"It's always good to find a game that plays well for adults, but can be played by younger players as well. Young people can learn a lot about varying ecosystems, and their food chains playing the game, if the adults take a bit of extra time to use the game as a teaching tool." Yorkton This Week

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Biome Builder In Biome Builder, budding ecologists discover diverse creatures across four distinct biomes: Amazon Rainforest, American Prairie, Sahara Desert, and Pacific Ocean. Players create food chains in this fast-paced card game but BEWARE! Action cards can upset the balance of these ecosystems. Race to build the

# data[].attributes.body
Multiplication and Division Bingo is a great way to review facts with students in a fun way!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Trend Enterprises: Multiplication & Division Bingo Game, Exciting Way for All to Learn, 2 Games in One! Play 8 Different Ways, Great for Classrooms and at Home, 2 to 36 Players, for Ages 9 and Up

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Buy Trend Enterprises: Multiplication & Division Bingo Game, Exciting Way for All to Learn, 2 Games in One! Play 8 Different Ways, Great for Classrooms and at Home, 2 to 36 Players, for Ages 9 and Up: Everything Else - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

# data[].attributes.body
This is an awesome resource that uses primary sources to teach history through clickable episodes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
KidCitizen is part of the Congress, Civic Participation, and Primary Sources Project, supported by a grant from the Library of Congress.

ACTIVITIES EXPLORING CONGRESS AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT FOR GRADES K-5

KidCitizen provides a growing set of interactive episodes where K-5 students work with primary source photographs to explore Congress and Civic Engagement.

We are working with the University of Puerto Rico on Spanish language versions of three more episodes. Enter your email, and we'll tell you when they are ready!

The app's episodes capitalize on the active and social nature of young children's learning, using primary sources for rich demonstrations, interactions, and models of literacy.

Digital Accessibility Resources

The KidCitizen team is gathering resources to help all TPS Consortium partners work on Usability and Accessibility of digital and online resources.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
KidCitizen games for young grammar school children to work with Primary Sources

# data[].attributes.body
This is an awesome game that has a Math section and an ELA section. Teachers can assign specific skills that they want students to focus on or students can work on skills that they need extra help with.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Here's how nearly one million teachers use Prodigy in the classroom at no cost!

Help students master math standards with a fun and engaging gameplay experience

Adjust and align Prodigy's in-game math content with your lesson plans

Track student development to decide where to best spend your time

No trial period, no hidden costs for educators. Our optional parent memberships ensure Prodigy stays free for all teachers.

Prodigy for Teachers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Here's how nearly one million teachers use Prodigy in the classroom at no cost! Help students master math standards with a fun and engaging gameplay experience Adjust and align Prodigy's in-game math content with your lesson plans Track student development to decide where to best spend your time No trial period, no hidden costs for educators.

# data[].attributes.body
Blooket is a fun game where students answer questions and compete with each other. You can create your own questions or use some of the teacher uploaded questions. This is a fun way to review because there are multiple options for games and each one is a blast!

# data[].attributes.body
The Unfair game is a great way to quiz students on information that they are learning in class. You can create your own version of The Unfair Game or purchase a premade one!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Unfair Game® is about to become your new favorite class activity, and your students will love and hate you for it. In any situation that you might be inclined to play a game of Jeopardy, Trashketball, or Grudgeball, instead... make it unfair with The Unfair Game®!

CREDIT: The idea for The Unfair Game comes from Julia Ullman, who has been collaborating on the development of the Nous sommes curriculum. Julia has been playing this game for years, and I am so glad that she shared this idea with me!

The Unfair Game® is designed to be played with two teams. You can use as few or as many questions as you want, and teams try to answer the questions correctly in order to earn points for their team.

What's so unfair about that?

THE ORIGINAL UNFAIR GAME

In the Unfair Game, each question is assigned a unique point value, and the point value can be positive OR negative. No one except for the teacher knows the value of the question until after the answer is given. The team must decide before seeing the value of the question whether they want to keep the points or give them to the other team. Then they have to just cross their fingers and hope that their choice worked out in their favor!

THE UNFAIR GAME 2.0

In order to increase the strategy required to play the game, I came up with an alternate way to play (it will also allow you to inject novelty by playing the same game in a slightly different way): once the value of the question is revealed, the team can choose to keep the points or give them to the other team. Instead of determining the winner by whoever has the most points, the winning team is the one that has the positive score closest to zero. (For example, a team with a final score of +2 would beat a team with a final score of -1 because the winning score must be positive--even though -1 is closer to 0 than is +2.) Of course, if both scores are negative, then the winning score is whichever is closer to zero. The game is still unfair because you aren't in control of your own score: another team can interfere with your strategy!

TO SET UP THE UNFAIR GAME:

1. Write a list of questions to ask students during the game, and number each question.

2. Assign a positive or negative point value to each question at random (I stick to values between -10 and +10 or so).

3. Create some kind of a game board in which only the question numbers are visible (students cannot see the question or the point value assigned to it). For example, the game board could be as simple as the nine-square grid that you see to the right. The teacher should keep a list of the questions that correspond to each question number from the game board AND the value of each question. (Ex: Q1: What is 1+1? value = +3 points Q2: Who wrote Romeo and Juliet? value = -6 points, Q3: What does "corre" mean in English? value = +2 points).

Here is a basic Unfair Game game board:

Want something a little more jazzy? Purchase the interactive and editable The Unfair Game template for Powerpoint or The Unfair Game template for Keynote. Each one provided in Spanish and in English, includes separate templates for the Original Unfair Game and The Unfair Game 2.0--four templates total--, and is designed for 25 questions).

We also offer many pre-made games, and we'd gladly make one for you-- submit a request here!

How to play The Unfair Game

1. Divide your class into two teams: Team A and Team B (they can choose a name for their team, if they wish). If you play the original version of the game, you could have more than two teams. However, if you play The Unfair Game 2.0, you really should only have two teams so that several teams are not tempted to strategically "gang up" on one team in particular.

2. Think of a number between 1-100 and have each team guess to see which one gets to choose a question first. Let's imagine that Team A guesses the number closest to the one that you chose and therefore gets to pick the question first.

3. Explain the objective: When all questions have been answered (or you run out of time), whichever team has the closest POSITIVE score to zero is declared the winner. (Ex: A team with a score of +2 beats a team with a score of -1 because the score must be positive, even though -1 is closer to 0 than +2.

4. The first team (Team A, in this example) selects a question number.

5. The teacher reads the corresponding question aloud.

6. Team A attempts to answer the question correctly.

7. After Team A answers the question, the teacher states whether the answer was "correct" or "incorrect" (revealing the correct answer if the team answered incorrectly).

8. The teacher reveals the point value of the question.

9. If Team A answered correctly, Team A chooses whether to keep the points or to award them to Team B. If Team A answered the question incorrectly, then Team B chooses what to do with the points from that question (to keep them or assign them to Team A).

10. A secretary adds the positive or negative point value to the designated team's score on a score sheet.

11. Regardless of whether or not Team A answered their question correctly, Team B now chooses a question and game play repeats from Step #4-#10.

12. Play until all questions have been answered or you run out of time!

KEEP IT COMPREHENSIBLE

Switching to Comprehension Based Methods of teaching language doesn't mean that you have to get rid of all of your old activities: you simply must consider how you can use them to provide your students with comprehensible input!

So, how could you use this in a world language class that strives to fill each class period with CI? Here are a few ideas:

Read a chapter--or several chapters--from a novel and have students respond to comprehension questions about the text in the target language. Think outside the box when writing questions: include formats like "Fact or Opinion?", "First or Second?", "Who said it?", etc. Students could also determine whether or not the given statement appeared in the text.

Do a MovieTalk or Ask a Story in class. Each question for the game is a question about the video or class story (true/false, multiple choice, fill in the blank, etc.).

Do a cultural study and ask content-based questions in the target language about the topic.

Work with a song and really get to know the lyrics. Show students the first half of a lyric and require them to complete it, give the next line in the song, or translate it.

Write closed-ended questions (NOT personalized or customized) or fill in the blank statements, each of which includes one structure from a set of target structures.

Get ready-to-play games!

In addition to our editable templates ( Click here!), we have a whole slew of The Unfair Game sets that are loaded up with questions and ready for you to play with your students in Spanish, English or French.

See an example of how I created a version of the game that is rich in input (available in Spanish and French):

Background graphics for slides and the cover page of the game instructions were created by Clipart Queen.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Unfair Game is a totally unfair twist on Jeopardy that your students will LOVE to hate! Learn how to play and find sample game boards in this post.

# data[].attributes.body
A TedTalk featuring Paul Andersen talking about the advantages of using games in the classroom. His number one point? It makes students okay with trying and failing and trying again.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Classroom Game Design: Paul Andersen at TEDxBozeman

# data[].attributes.body
An educational podcast about gamifying your classroom. Each episode is short and straight to the point. The host discusses ways to gamify your classroom as well as the benefits of doing so.

# data[].attributes.body
National Geographic has some great games (as well as articles for teaching science!) that students can play!

# data[].attributes.body
A Q&A from EdWeek with a bunch of educators discussing their favorite games to use in the classroom. If this interests you, there is a second part to this article with even more suggestions!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The new question-of-the-week is:
What are your favorite classroom games?
In Part One, Shannon Jones, Jennifer Bay-Williams, Molly Ness, and Sheniqua Johnson shared their favorites.

Today, Jenny Vo, Donna L. Shrum, David Seelow, Kathleen Rose McGovern, Melisa "Misha" Cahnmann-Taylor, and Ciera Walker provide their recommendations.

'Students Are More Focused'
Jenny Vo has worked with English-learners during all of her 26 years in education and is currently the Houston area EL coordinator for International Leadership of Texas. Follow her on Twitter at @JennyVo15:
Games are great tools to engage students in their learning. There are many educational benefits to playing games in the classroom. One, games make learning fun. Two, they encourage the students to pay attention. As a result, the students are more focused when playing games. Three, students learn to collaborate and cooperate with their team members when playing on a team. They learn the social skills of communication, listening, and compromising, just to name a few. The best benefit that occurs from playing games in the classroom is that students are learning content in a fun, engaging way!

Games can be used anytime during your lesson. You can use them to assess students' background knowledge about a certain topic before you begin a unit. You can also use games to build background knowledge before you actually introduce your lesson/topic. There are some great games to practice and review vocabulary. Other games are perfect for whole-group or individual reviews before an assessment. Below are some of my favorite classroom-learning games.

Charades, Pictionary, and Pyramid are great games to use for vocabulary review. Charades is a word guessing game. Students can be paired with partners or in teams. One member will act out a word or phrase without talking or making noises. Along the same vein, Pictionary requires a team member to draw pictures, and the rest of the team guesses what the word or phrase is based on the pictures. Pyramid is a two-person game and relies on words only. The objective is to guess the mystery word using only words or phrases given by the teammate. I love using these three games because they require the students to pay attention to each other, collaborate with each other, and study/learn the vocabulary beforehand so their team can do well.

Another game that my students love to play is Kahoot!, a game-based learning platform. It is made up of quizzes that the students can play in class and at home. Teachers can access a database of ready-made games or create the games themselves. I used Kahoot! in a variety of ways-to build background knowledge, as vocabulary practice, and to review before an assessment. Students are not only competing against each other but also a time limit (adjustable by the teacher). With online learning during the pandemic, I relied on Kahoot! a lot for both in-person and virtual classes. The students loved the competitive aspect of the game and worked hard to see their names on the Kahoot! virtual podiums at the end.

The third kind of game that my students love to play in class is the old-fashioned board game. This may be surprising considering the technology-advanced world we live in, but my students LOVE rolling the dice and moving the game pieces around the game board! One year, when I was given extra money by my department, I bought a bunch of board games that focused on reviewing reading-comprehension skills such as main idea, details, inference, context clues, etc. Each year after that, whenever I would be given extra money, I would add to my collection with games from other subjects-math, science, and social studies. We had so much fun playing them, and the students asked to play them so much that we designated Friday as our game day. I chose the Friday game based on the skill we were working on that week. I think the students knew we were doing schoolwork, but they didn't mind because we were also having fun, not sitting at our desks and doing worksheets.

Adding 'Snap, Crackle, and Pop'
After teaching English for over 20 years, Donna L. Shrum is now teaching ancient history to freshmen in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She remains active in the Shenandoah Valley Writing Project and freelance writing for education and history magazines:
When students play a game, their brains reward them with dopamine. Incredibly, your curriculum alone doesn't always provide that same brain rush for your students, so mixing games into your curriculum can add some snap, crackle, and pop. In fact, some teachers are completely gamifying their courses, structuring their curriculum as an ongoing game. But that is a discussion for another day.

While teaching with Zoom, I struggled to find ways to adapt the active games I'd used in my physical classroom. One success was playing tag: Someone in Zoomland was "it" and tagged someone of whom I asked a question. Answer the question wrong, and you're "it"; get it right, and the tagger had to try again with another student.

This year, while teaching 8th grade civics, I used some of the review games I'd used for years to introduce material. I discovered that creating a Kahoot about current events was a fun way for the students to see if they could predict the correct answer and then I'd briefly fill in the details of the event once they saw the answer. I used Kahoot as an anticipation guide in the same way, creating brief "What Do You Already Know?" Kahoots before teaching a topic. At the end of the lesson, students could play again to see what they had learned.

I sometimes use Quizizz for variety, but this year, I have fallen in love with Quizizz Lessons. Instead of introducing material on Google Slides, I could put it into a Quizizz slide, then follow with a formative-assessment slide as a poll, open-ended answer, or multiple-choice question. Video slides are part of the paid package. Lessons still gave a score at the end, and I was surprised students viewed Lessons as a competitive game. It was a wonderful tool for Zoom, because providing the code allowed them to see the game on their computers (a feature Kahoot also introduced this year) without relying on a possibly unsteady Zoom screen share.

I've had the paid version of Gimkit for three years now, and in that time, an increasing number of other teachers have found out about this treasure, which offers a high level of competition as well as multiple game modes. As the school year drew to a close, I used the Drawing mode for short curriculum breaks. Drawing didn't work well with my existing Kits, so I created ones just for drawing in which I entered words and phrases and then simply put a period as all the answers. In the future, I plan to create drawing Kits related to the classes I teach.

I comb online sites to find new game ideas, and these are the most popular with my students and links explaining how to play:

The Unfair Game While I sometimes played whole class, I usually let them partner up and keep their own scores while they played on one computer between them.

Grudgeball For some reason, honors classes play Grudgeball the most intensely.

Motor Mouth. Use Google Draw to create playing cards. On each, put 4-6 terms you'd like students to learn. Print on card stock and laminate. Create enough sets for students to play in pairs. The game is like Password: The students split the cards, then take turns trying to get the other person to correctly guess the term. The partners who finish first win.

Games for all Ages
David Seelow currently teaches at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, N.Y., writes the Revolutionary Learning blog, and consults on game-based learning, online education, interdisciplinary instruction, and comics in the classroom. He is the editor of two collections of essays on innovative teaching: Teaching in the Game-Based Classroom: Practical Lessons for Grades 6-12, a Routledge, Eye on Education book, and Lessons Drawn: Essays on the Pedagogy of Comics and Graphic Novels:
I have several favorite games for different grades levels. For the elementary grades, is wonderful. It introduces algebra through fun, engaging activities that transition seamlessly into algebra without students even realizing they are solving mathematical equations. remains a favorite. Students can build entire worlds and work either individually or as part of a team.

takes the class out of the school building into the world where students can explore famous geographical and historical landmarks by visiting pokestops. In keeping with a geography theme, the board game allows students to experience an outdoor adventure indoors, learn valuable information about the country's national parks, and cultivate the value of conservation, while enjoying magnificent photography of our natural wonders. KidCitizen uses primary documents in an interactive experience pertaining to democracy. The KidCitizen Editor gives teachers the tool to create their own episodes tailored to their class. provides children with a rich fantasy world to capture their imagination while also requiring cooperation to be successful in the game. Learning how to work in teams at an early age will be indispensable throughout a child's education.

For the middle school age group, has students build food chains in a race to help one of four biomes (the American Prairie, Pacific Ocean, Amazon Rain Forest, Sahara Desert) survive. Before leaving the middle grades, I want to recommend the online game ; students learn the value of being kind and helping others by responding anonymously to requests for help. The game promotes the best in social and emotional learning and can have a transformative impact on students' approach to life.

Kind Words also reminds me to point out that many games can be played across grades levels. Biome Builder, mentioned above, has curricular alignment with elementary, middle, and high school students. Portal 1 and 2 can be applied to learning missions ranging fromr using statistics in 6 th grade all the way up to AP Physics. iCivics has a suite of 30-minute games exploring all aspects of the U.S.'s three branches of government. Every student will benefit from playing these games in class.

Finally, for the high school age, making ethical decisions should be an essential skill, and no game teaches this better than . In the game, you play an immigration officer making life-changing decisions about who can or cannot cross the border of a totalitarian country. The board game has immediate relevance for students living through COVID-19. Importantly, this game requires cooperative learning to win. The game effectively simulates the need to cure, cope with, and prevent a pandemic in 60 minutes play time.

Language arts/English are well served by two narrative-based games: Gone Home and What Remains of Edith Finch. In both games, players explore a family home in the Pacific Northwest. In the former, as protagonist Kate, you learn about family secrets including a nuanced depiction of an LFBTQ+ relationship. In the latter game, you explore a haunted ancestral house in a brilliantly executed story reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe and perfect for teaching literary elements. Finally, encouraging students to slow down and appreciate both the wonders of the natural world and the marvels of language will prove invaluable to their future lives. Students need to step outside their screen-dependent world to reflect on their surroundings and their own life, and, paradoxically, helps them do just that.

Oh, before I go, Jeopardy! is still a great game for the classroom; just have students design the answers.

Building a 'Trusting Community'

One of my favorite games to play with intermediate learners involves an extension of the popular language-teaching (and party) game: 2 Truths & 1 Lie.

Basically, it involves inviting students to share three personal stories (not statements, but stories with a beginning, middle, and end). Then, after each person has told their stories, and classmates have guessed the lie, I divide students into groups and guide them through an improvisational process in which they perform one another's stories.

I find that students are typically very engaged because they are sharing stories that are important to them with their classmates and negotiating the language involved in putting together a scene (e.g., "come in from the right and stand by that table"). This also offers opportunities for literacy practice as students can write out their stories or even draft scripts from their improvisations. This activity was the backbone for my work devising plays with my intermediate ESOL students at a nonprofit language school for immigrant learners in Massachusetts. But I have used it in nonperformative contexts as well. It's a wonderful way to collaboratively explore language relevant to the students' interests and build a trusting community at the same time.

Improv Games

"Getting to know you" games can be terrific for any time you want a group to learn more information about each "player" in the class, including and going beyond learning one another's names.

By using it at the beginning of any class or semester, teachers gather a great deal of information about who is in the room, including how comfortable and familiar each student is with performance as well as information about any limitations or concerns students may bring to these embodied practices. The information garnered from these games, including students' individual needs, strengths, and limitations, will assure greater trust and success in play and language learning throughout your group's time together.

One of my favorites that I use with any group is the Poetry in Names Game. Even if a group already knows one another, it can be a fun and lyrical challenge to create a class poem for which each student uses alliteration and/or rhyme to describe themselves in their person. First, show students how to play by saying your name and something you like in the following formula: [Name], he/she likes _______. E.g.: "Misha, she likes marshmallows." While you say this, make an exaggerated movement (e.g., mime eating lots of marshmallows). Advanced learners may consider things that have the same first-letter sound (alliteration), consonance sounds, assonance (vowel) sounds, or rhyme (exact or slant). Here's a video of a group of TESOL educators playing this game.

Many theater and improv games can and should be played repeatedly. By changing the prompt, teachers can change the target language of the game-from vocabulary acquisition to specific grammatical forms or pronunciation features such as intonation and stress. Just as the same game can be played differently, the same words can be communicated differently depending on how they are said, where, to whom, by whom, and for what ends. These games introduce or review target language words and phrases that help students understand an important communicative lesson: It's both what you say, and how you say it!

A wonderful example of this is the game, "The house is on fire, let's...". One person in the pair begins, saying, "The house is on fire, let's_____," filling in the end of the sentence with ANY suggestion not connected to the actual scenario of a house on fire. (For example, "Let's buy a canoe"; "Let's eat some candy"; "Let's study math"; "Let's braid our hair.") This game exercises students' fluency, creativity, sense of humor, and ability to laugh in light of making L2 (second language) errors. See this video to watch how hilarity ensues and fluency is developed!

'Running Dictation'
Ciera Walker is a seventh-year systemwide elementary school ELL teacher in east Tennessee:
At the beginning of the school year, my students set academic goals based on their WIDA Access scores from the previous year. While goals always vary, this year, many students had a goal to improve their speaking scores. I set out to intentionally create differentiated lessons for my students that involved multiple opportunities to speak. Each week, students use Flipgrid with rubrics and personalized feedback to practice and improve speaking. Additionally, I utilized a learning game I read about in 39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities for Kids written by Jackie Bolen and Jennifer Booker Smith called Running Dictation. This game was a favorite among my students this year. Below is a list of materials needed for the game, a description of my interpretation of the game and how I used it in my classroom, some benefits of the game, and suggested improvements to the game to fit my students' needs in the future.

Materials:

Printed phrases, sentences, or paragraphs from a text that students are reading (I typed out sentences from passages or novels that we were reading in class.)

Description/How to Play:

Benefits:

Students are constantly communicating very specific information.

Students are engaged in using punctuation and spelling patterns.

Students must be able to verbalize when they need more information or are confused.

Students are actively engaged in grammar while writing.

Students are practicing speaking, listening, reading, and writing all in one game.

Cross-curricular connections can be made in various subjects such as language arts, science, or social studies.

Implications for the Future:

I hope to use Flipgrid captions in combination with the running-dictation game to show students that what they say isn't always interpreted or heard correctly. This will help emphasize the importance of speaking clearly.

For higher English-proficient students, I might use a paragraph, and once the paragraph is written, have students put it in order (as suggested by Bolen and Booker Smith).

Have students use the original text to answer questions about what they wrote during the running-dictation game.

Have students interpret and discuss the paragraph.

Use a paragraph that students haven't read yet to introduce a new unit/topic/vocabulary.

The game is a wonderful and fun way to get students reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Additionally, I would recommend the book 39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities for Kids for anyone looking to enhance engagement in the ESL classroom.

Thanks to Jenny, Donna, David, Kathleen, Melisa, and Ciera for contributing their thoughts!

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@epe.org. When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it's selected or if you'd prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo.

Education Week has published a collection of posts from this blog, along with new material, in an e-book form. It's titled Classroom Management Q&As: Expert Strategies for Teaching.

I am also creating a Twitter list including all contributors to this column.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Want to Have Fun in the Classroom? Try Learning Games (Opinion)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The new question-of-the-week is: What are your favorite classroom games? In Part One, Shannon Jones, Jennifer Bay-Williams, Molly Ness, and Sheniqua Johnson shared their favorites. Today, Jenny Vo, Donna L. Shrum, David Seelow, Kathleen Rose McGovern, Melisa "Misha" Cahnmann-Taylor, and Ciera Walker provide their recommendations.

# data[].attributes.body
Kelly Coburn has been a teacher for 5 years. She went to Stockton University for undergrad and she is currently enrolled at Rutgers University for grad school. She loves to use games in the classroom in order to make learning fun! Her students do well on standardized tests and they have fun each day while learning.

# data[].attributes.body
The Classroom Nook has a podcast episode that talks all about gamifying the classroom. The article itself has tons of advice and knowledge as well!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Over 10 years ago I started a blog called The Classroom Game Nook blog. I started it because I am a big fan of finding ways to make learning more fun for students. When learning is fun, motivation, engagement, and student success often follow.

On my blog the Classroom GAME Nook, I shared all the ways that I used fun and games in the classroom. And, although over the years I dropped the word "game" from my title, and am now just The Classroom Nook, I certainly did not stop striving to find ways to make learning fun through games.

I want to explore gamification in the classroom. Gamification is a term that we've heard pop up in the education world lately. Kids love games. When they play games, they have fun, and when they have fun: they learn.

So, what is it about games that are so attractive? And how can we capture those elements and apply it to other areas in the classroom? Well - that's exactly what we're about to explore.

Everyone loves games. Even Albert Einstein agreed. He said that games were a form of investigation. Games allow students to flex their critical thinking skills, use strategy, evaluate, and apply new knowledge.

When I was little, probably first grade or so, I can remember playing Twister with my family. And, as you likely know - in Twister, you're being asked to put your right hand on red, or your left foot on yellow.

At that age, I was constantly getting my left and right messed up. I have a vivid memory of playing Twister in our living room and finally being able to remember left from right as we played the game over and over. It was like a lightbulb finally went off in my head. It's a silly example - but a perfect one - to illustrate how playing a game helped me to apply new knowledge, and not just apply it - but retain it long-term.

Games are in our everyday life, you just may not be thinking about it. Have you ever earned rewards points for shopping at a certain store, or eating at a certain restaurant? After earning a specified amount of points, you usually get a discount, or a free coffee - or whatever it may be.

Our life is often gamified. Companies know that we are motivated by things like points and free stuff. They know it motivates us to spend more money with them, or come to their restaurant. There's an incentive - a reward.

I recently watched a really interesting TedTalk done by Paul Andersen, an AP Biology Teacher from Montana, who described a a little experiment with his students.

He put up his laptop in the front of his classroom set up with the video game Angry Birds. Next to his laptop he had a piece of paper that said "play" with an arrow pointing to the laptop. As his students came in that day, they took turns playing this game on his laptop. A webcam was also set up to capture the students as they were playing.

What he saw was that his students eager and willing to want to participate. They cheered each other on, they worked together to beat the level of angry birds, and were all willing to try and fail until they had success.

He also had some key take-away from his experiment that I thought were really powerful.

1- Students want to participate when something is fun. And school should be fun.

2 - Failure is ok. In video games, we have to fail at a level time and time again before we can beat that level. But the failure is not the important part - it's the learning that comes from trying. In school, failure should be about the learning.

3 - We should treat our classrooms like the levels of a video game. As a player in a video game, you can go through the levels of that game as quickly or as slowly as your abilities allow you. You're not held back waiting for others to catch up, OR forced to go any quicker than you're ready for.

In his ted-talk, he goes on to talk about how these key take-aways that he got from his little experiment revolutionized the way he approached teaching and how he approached his students.

He began to apply elements of games to his teaching and realized that gamification in the classroom is powerful! It promotes communication, cooperation, and even a healthy dose of competition (which we know often increases motivation). Games give students practice with problem-solving, learning through trial and error, and so much more.

But - I want to talk about more than just playing games in the classroom. You likely are already playing games in your classroom in your small groups, in your centers, and maybe even as a whole group. These are great ways to motivate students and give them fun opportunities to apply what they are learning. But - at the heart of gamification is taking those elements that make games so engaging, and applying them in other kinds of learning activities.
Gamification elements like:

Earning points toward something

Earning Badges that indicate an achievement

Using leaderboards to promote healthy competition among the players

Keeping track of Checkpoints and levels that show progress toward a goal

These are all elements that we can take from the gaming world and apply it to a classroom setting.

When we infuse these game-like features in our classroom, students begin to take more ownership of what they are learning. They learn that they have the space they need to fail and try again. They are given opportunities to track and celebrate accomplishments, and they being to feel part of the community within their classroom.

Here's what's so nice about gamifying your instruction. Using gamification elements in your classroom doesn't require an overhaul of your entire curriculum. You can easily add a layer of gamification over top of what you are already doing.
So, let's break these down. I want you to walk away with some ideas and actionable tips to help you add more gamification to your classroom.

This is not a new concept. In fact - think about the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts - they've been earning badges as part of their programs for a century or more. They work toward a certain accomplishment, which usually requires learning a new skill, applying that skill, and mastering that skill. Once they do, they get a badge to show their accomplishment.

We can do this in the classroom as well! Assign point values for tasks, skills, or activities within a content area that students complete in the classroom. When those points are received, students earn a badge. Put on display for everyone to see to celebrate student success. Earn point and badges can be a unit-long process, a quarter-long process, or even a whole-year process where students have the opportunity to earn their badges throughout the school year. You just need to decide what you want these badges to represent and what makes the most sense for your classroom and objective.

This leads us right into the concept of a leaderboard. As students earn points and badges, they can move up or down the leaderboard. A leaderboard is essentially a visual that ranks the performance of its participants. This promotes a sense of accomplishment as well as motivation to earn a coveted spot on the leaderboard.

You can have a whole-class leaderboard, or even a small-group leader board. Of course, leaderboards also have the potential to make students "at the bottom" feel bad, so use them with care. You might consider only having a leaderboard that displays the top 5 or 10 performers so that no student has to see their name at the bottom of the leaderboard.

One of the most fun and motivating features of a game is the ability to pass through certain check points and levels. As students complete certain objectives (whether that be completing an assignment or tasks, mastering a set of skills, or whatever it may be), allow them to keep track of their progress and give them some sort of incentive to reach that level.

Maybe after completing certain levels they earn a special reward like lunch in the classroom with a friend, or extra recess - whatever might be appealing to your students. Checkpoints and levels can be tracked through a progress bar chart where all the levels are plotted out, like a bar graph, and students can color in their progress bar.

In contrast, the leaderboard is a great visual for helping students see how they stack up against other "players" in the classroom, while the checkpoint and levels progress bar gives a visual of where individual students are in their own journey. Both can be powerful and motivating.

Let's talk some logistics. When you start to use some of these gamification features in your classroom, you want to do so in an intentional way. You don't need to gamify every single thing in your classroom. That could get confusing and overwhelming for you students.

Instead, look for areas in your classroom where motivation and engagement tends to be lacking. These are the areas where you can use gamification. You can also start simple with just one area that uses gamification elements and add on from there. Take the lead from your students and find out what works and what doesn't.

You'll also want to set clear expectations. Just like any game has rule, so should these gamified learning experiences. Make sure students are clear on the process, and outline their pathway to success.

Allow for student choice. Remember: one of the goals for gamifying your classroom is to increase motivation. Your students are motivated in a different ways, so as students progress through levels, offer them choices in the types of incentives and rewards that they might earn.

I want to leave you with a few questions to ask yourself to help you take action if you feel like gamification is a good fit for your classroom.
What areas of your instruction and your curriculum do you find a lack of motivation and engagement from your students?
For me it was always math. As a student I struggled in math and as teacher, I always dreaded teaching math - especially the more abstract concepts. For me, this would be a great area to add a layer of gamification.

I recently did this with a brand new LINKtivity® that just came out inside the LINKtivity® Learning membership. A lot of members had been asking me for more math LINKtivities because I think they, too, found that it was an area of their classroom that could use more interactive learning experiences.

So - I went back and forth on how exactly to do this and eventually came up with the idea of a mystery picture style LINKtivity® where students would reveal a small portion of a picture each time they answered a question correctly. As they work through the LINKtivity® - in this case, it was on equivalent fractions - more and more of the picture was revealed. This added a layer of gamification to the learning experience. Answering each question correctly was essentially passing a level that rewarded them with revealing a piece of the picture.

Ask yourself - where in your curriculum do you tend to see low engagement or student motivation. Maybe its a topic or subject you don't like teaching. Adding that layer of gamification could also motivate, not just your students to want to learn it, but motivate you as the teacher to want to teach it.

How could adding one or more elements of gamification help breath new life into this area, topic, or subject?

Where could earning points or badges fit in? How can you divide the curriculum up into checkpoints and levels that students can progress through?
What tools do you already have access to that would make gamification easier?
Tools like Kahoot and Quizlet are popular apps for gamifying your instruction. Sometimes we forget that we have access to these types of tools that have already done the leg work in making this style of learning possible and we just need to be reminded of them - and start using them!
What do you need to consider about your students before implementing any gamification elements in your classroom?
We talked briefly about how the leaderboard may make students feel, especially those at the bottom. How can you make it work for your students, specifically?

What specifically motivates your students?

Be sure to create an on-going list so that you can draw from that list when incentivizing your students.

What is one thing that you can start doing now in your classroom to begin gamifying your instruction.

Let's take action together. Start simple and get fancy later. Take one small step in the right direction and build it from there.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Gamification in the Elementary Classroom - THE CLASSROOM NOOK

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Using games as a mode of learning in the classroom can be powerful. Kids love games. When they play games in the classroom, they have fun, and when they have fun - they learn. So, what is it about games that are so attractive?

# data[].attributes.body
This is an article from Edutopia that lists 13 virtual games to play in an elementary classroom. These are AMAZING if you are teaching virtually.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Checkmate!

While most educators feel too worn out to take on anything else this year, classroom games-old and new-can provide a much-needed respite for students and teachers who are burned out on video lessons and miss social connection.

We found some easy-to-use virtual games that elementary teachers are playing with their students this year, along with tips on how to incorporate them into the classroom.

Gaming With Google Slides

After noticing how much her students missed informal socializing during hybrid learning, Liz Henneberry, a third-grade teacher in Franklin, Massachusetts, transformed Connect Four, Trouble, Chess, and Checkers to Google Slides; the latter two are adaptations from Eric Curts' templates, and all of Henneberry's templates can be downloaded and immediately used in your virtual classroom. During recess breaks, students click a board game shelved in a virtual recess room, which creates their own copy of the game. Students can then share the game with their friend using Google Drive so that the two can play a round together. If students are new to sharing Google Slides, Henneberry recommends modeling the step-by-step process first.

Similarly, Robin Nahhas says her third-grade students have loved playing Multiplication Tic-Tac-Toe, a downloadable game she created on Google Slides so that they could practice their multiplication facts. Before playing, Nahhas goes over directions and the code of conduct with students, reminding them of protocols such as not interfering with classmates' games or else having their gaming privileges revoked.
Courtesy of Robin Nahhas
Then, she pairs up students and places them in breakout rooms on Zoom. Each student in the pair selects a set of color pieces, and when it's their turn, they roll two digital dice, multiply the numbers shown, and place a piece onto the virtual board with the corresponding number. To play again, they move their pieces back to the side of the board. If students need help solving a problem, they can rely on their partner or click the "Ask for Help" button after trying one of the strategies they learned in class with pencil and paper first.

Games to Boost Creative Thinking

During morning meetings, fifth-grade teacher Sarah Wood says she incorporates games like scavenger hunts that the whole class can play together while learning from home. When it's time to play, Wood projects a word like blanket and a matching image on a slideshow, and then students run to find the item in their homes. When they find the object, they can share it on video or by typing in the chat box.

Wood has even focused the game around particular learning goals, like having students find objects that reinforce vocabulary or putting together a project with the items. Once, they were asked to find a broom, a blanket, and a few heavy objects, and then they had 10 minutes to build a reading fort. During asynchronous time, they used Flipgrid to give a tour of their forts.

She says her students have also enjoyed directed drawing exercises-when students are directed to draw something without seeing it. Wood gives directions like "Draw a large oval with a smaller oval inside; on the left side, attach a triangle," based on images from a drawing book or a directed drawing YouTube channel. When her students are done drawing, they turn on their cameras, put their artwork up to the screen, and guess what they drew. Wood then reveals the actual drawing and it tends to bring out a lot of laughter, she says.

Wood's students also love games where they take a more active role. Using Blackboard Collaborate for Pictionary, students take turns drawing on a whiteboard-prompted by a word generator-while students call out their guesses. The next time Wood plays, she'll use Whiteboard.fi instead of Blackboard Collaborate, a free virtual whiteboard. When playing Taboo, her students take turns trying to describe a word like crack, for example, while being prohibited from using related words like drop or glass while the rest of the class guesses. And her students are obsessed with competing against their peers by being the first to name Disney movies, for example, in the ever-popular quiz platform Kahoot.

Viral Sensations

Initially, during remote learning, it was hard getting students comfortable with face-to-face interactions over Zoom, but the viral video game Among Us -a kid-friendly murder mystery-has stimulated engagement and conversation in Vickiela Wright's fifth-grade class, she says.

In the game, each student is a crew member on a spaceship and is given a task to keep it running. One or more students are impostors, and their mission is to kill the crew members without getting caught. In between each round, students use Google meets to try to guess the impostors and form alliances to identify the killer.

"The conversations, problem-solving, engagement, and teamwork were robust and surprising. One student said it was the best part of her life," says Wright.
©Shutterstock.com/John Siva
Similar to Among Us, Werewolf is a game of deduction where students take on the role of villager or werewolf. Students collaborate and problem-solve to kill the werewolves before they become werewolves themselves. And the hugely popular Minecraft: Education Edition can serve as a hangout for students' pixelated avatars to socialize and even partake in English language arts-based station rotations.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
13 Virtual Games to Play in Your Elementary Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
From scavenger hunts to Pictionary, we've gathered a batch of virtual games to get students talking, laughing, and engaging with peers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
COBURN Curation Tools Platform Analysis Worksheet

# data[].attributes.body
This article from the Smithsonian talks about 5 Benefits of Gamification.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
5 Benefits of Gamification

Dmitri Mendeleev was a Russian scientist and educator in the 19th century who is often credited as the scientist that first published the Periodic Table of Elements. However, what people do not know is that he may have been one of the first scientists to use gamification to complete an educational task.

Dmitri Mendeleev

The term gamification can be used in two ways. The first way is by adopting the act of playing a video game into everyday use. The engagement levels and entertainment values of video gaming can motivate users to accomplish tasks that are normally viewed as boring, such as learning. Another definition of gamification is the act of using game elements to make non-games more enjoyable. 1

Mendeleev was known to have been an avid card player, so it was logical for him to use cards as a way to categorize the elements in a way he could understand. Mendeleev turned the classification process into a card game by listing each element and other information on a card and placing them face up on a table. By doing this, he was able to have a better grasp on the relationship of each element. Mendeleev published his findings, which led scientists to discover new elements to fill in the gaps of Mendeleev's work as well as further developing the table.

Growing up, Mendeleev was not the most successful student, but he became a historical scientific figure because of gamification. This proves as an exemplary example of the benefits of gamification and the impact it can have on all students despite their prior academic achievement.
Here are a few of the benefits of gamification: Gamification aids in cognitive development in adolescents.
Using gamification to aid in cognitive development will allow an increase in the activity of the regions of the brain to allow for adequate development. Games that are produced specifically for enhancing cognitive development are often referred to as "brain games." Brain games have become increasingly popular and are based on various questions and problems that the user has to answer or solve. Brain games can improve the rate in which the brain processes and maintains information. 2
In some cases, it aids in physical development.
Exercising with an interactive game is just as effective as normal exercise. This form of exercise will be very beneficial in adolescents that enjoy playing video games but are not currently physically active. There are many long-term benefits to being active.
Gamification increases level of engagement in classrooms.
Scientists performed a study to measure the level of engagement students displayed when utilizing gamification in the classroom.3 The researchers assigned a point system to various daily class activities. Then the students were measured based on their level of engagement. The researchers found that the game-like atmosphere was favorable in the classroom and increased productivity.
Gamification aids in accessibility in the classroom.
Gamification can be used as a teaching tool to educate adolescents of all needs. Scientists studied the effectiveness of using gamification in the form of a video game to teach students diagnosed with autism.4 The results of this study showed that this training package was effective in teaching age-appropriate content through gamification.
Gamification isn't limited to the classroom.
Gamification is not limited to the classroom but can be used in learning outside the classroom. Perhaps you break up your child's math homework into sections. The child will then level up after completing each section to get hints that will solve a riddle. Or maybe you can have your child create their very own Periodic Table with a few elements just like Mendeleev did with cards. Gamification at home is also a good way to get involved in your child's education!
Students participating in gamification in the classroom.
As gamification becomes more of a buzzword, it is important to not write it off. There are many benefits to gamification that help in enhancing the learning process for students at all academic levels. Hopefully, one day the term gamification will no longer be a buzzword and will be a ubiquitous term used in classrooms. After all, gamification has been around for over a century--Mendeleev is proof.
References

1.) Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L. (2011). From game design elements to gamefulness: defining "gamification". Proceedings of the MindTrek '11. doi:10.1145/2181037.2181040

2.) Doraiswamy, P. M., Agronin, M. (2009). Brain games: do they really work? http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=brain-games...

3.) Bustard, D. W., Black, M. M., Charles, T., Moore, A. A., McKinney, M. E. T., Moffett, P. (2011). GEL: A generic tool for game-enhanced learning. Unpublished research, University of Ulster, Coleraine, United Kingdom.

4.) Blum-Dimaya, A., Reeve, S. A., Reeve, K. F. (2010). Teaching children with autism to play a video game using activity schedules and game embedded simultaneous video modeling. Education and Treatment of Children, 33 (3). http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/education_and_treatment_of_chil...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Dmitri Mendeleev was a Russian scientist and educator in the 19th century who is often credited as the scientist that first published the Periodic Table of Elements. However, what people do not know is that he may have been one of the first scientists to use gamification to complete an educational task.

# data[].attributes.body
SplashLearn has TONS of games tailored to different topics.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
SplashLearn: Fun Math & ELA Program for PreK-Grade 5

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
SplashLearn is an award-winning learning program loved by over 40 million kids for engaging Math and ELA practice. Aligned with Common Core and various state standards.

# data[].attributes.body
Escape rooms are such a fun way to teach and review material. This is an example of one from SlidesMania that you can edit but there are SO many options on the web. Just search escape rooms and the topic you want to focus on on Teachers Pay Teachers or Google and your will find many that are ready made. You could also create your own escape room review! These are a favorite in my classroom!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Free PowerPoint template and Google Slides theme.

This is a Classified template; you shouldn't be reading this! Unless you are a SlidesManiac and therefore you are authorized!

This free template for Google Slides or PowerPoint is perfect for school activities such us digital breakouts, a history lesson, to investigate a past event or to solve a "Cold Case". It features and old classified file, 35mm film strips and some old pieces of paper. - On the 19 th slide you'll find some tips on how to get the old photo effect and the rubber stamp texts. -

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Investigation file. Free PowerPoint template & Google Slides theme - SlidesMania

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This is a Classified template; you shouldn't be reading this! Unless you are a SlidesManiac and therefore you are authorized! This free template for Google Slides or PowerPoint is perfect for school activities such us digital breakouts, a history lesson, to investigate a past event or to solve a "Cold Case".

# data[].attributes.body
Here is a video that walks you through multiple different game ideas. Some of them are apps and others are websites that you can use!

# data[].attributes.body
Mr. Nussbaum's website has tons of educational games that students can play independently.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mr. Nussbaum - Educational Games, Activities, Resources for Kids Ages 5-14 and Teacher Tools.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
MrNussbaum.com is a kids website that features over 10,000 online and printable activities including over 400 games, tutorials, simulations, videos, interactive maps, research tools, and much more for kids ages 5-14. Established in 2003!